Review: Canon 50mm 1.2 LTM

February 27, 2023 BastianK 26 Comments

Introduction

review canon ltm m39 leica 50mm 1.2 dream lens contrast resolution m10 42mp 24mp 61mp m6 analogue contrast bokeh vignetting — Canon 50mm 1.2 LTM on Leica M6

Some of you may not know that before producing FD mount lenses and SLR cameras Canon also manufactured rangefinder lenses and cameras, leading to a line-up of no less than 59 different LTM (Leica Thread Mount also known as M39) lenses between 1946 and 1964. These lenses are fully compatible to Leica M cameras and can be easily adapted to other modern mirrorless cameras as well, so today we will have a look at the Canon 50mm 1.2 LTM, the second fastest lens from this series released in 1956.
This lens will be reviewed on the 42mp Sony A7rII and the 24mp Leica M10.

Sample Images

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Guides, lenses, Opinion

Sony FE Lenses: The honest Guide for the A7/A9/A1 Series

February 22, 2023 The Team 249 Comments

Choose the right lens for your Sony Alpha with the help of our independent knowledge gained by writing many in-depth reviews.

We are a team of five photographers who all use the FE system and this blog is focused on lens reviews. So we have an in-depth knowledge of these lenses not only because we use them all the time but also because we have reviewed many of them in detail. We are also independent from any lens manufacturer and when you check our reviews you will see that we do not hesitate to name any shortcomings of a lens.
We will also talk about lens aberrations, if you don’t know too much about these terms maybe have a look at our article Lens aberrations explained first.

In this article we mainly list lenses which have electronic contacts to communicate aperture and focal length to the camera. There are also quite a few lenses which have an E-mount but no electronic contacts. Most of these are SLR-lenses with a modified mount and we decided against covering these because we think that most of them are not very attractive lenses. We do however cover some of the attractive ones that have been specifically designed for E-mount.

We do also have guides for:
9-18mm ultra wideangle FE lenses
20-28mm wide angle lenses
35mm FE lenses
50mm FE lenses
85-135mm FE portrait lenses
Macro lenses for the FE system
That may contain some adapted/exotic options not listed here.

If we have left any question unanswered please leave a comment or contact us on social media and we will do our best to answer it.

Last update: February 2023, release dates for all lenses added

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Meta, Opinion, The creative process

The complexity of deciding which lenses to pack

February 20, 2023 BastianK 33 Comments

Introduction

Now I have way more lenses than anyone possibly needs – luckily this was listed as kind of a requirement in the job description here – but when that is the case it also gets more difficult to decide what lenses to bring on a trip or an assignment. Going by the discussions in the forums I participate, and on our Discord, it seems I am not alone here.
A community member said it would be interesting to know about my thought process of deciding which lenses to bring on a trip, so here we are.

My approach

These days I often build my kit around lenses that still need to be reviewed. This will also heavily influence what cameras I pick. But let’s forget about that for now and keep it to the lenses I actually own.

ms-optics ms-optical apoqualia 35mm 1.4 fast noctilux angenieux leica m10 24mp 42mp review sharpness bokeh vignetting — Leica M6 | MS-Optics 35mm 1.4 Apoqualia | f/2.0 | Gold 200

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Analogue, Leica M, MS-Optics, The creative process

Analogue Adventures – Part 14: Agfa Vista 200 (expired)

February 16, 2023 BastianK 14 Comments

agfa vista expired 200 analogue leica m6 contax canon fd olympus om — Agfa Vista 200 Color Negative Film

These days whenever I come across a photo store I check if they have any film stock available, especially some I didn’t use before. In Istanbul I found a store selling these Agfa Vista 200 24+3 which expired 17 years ago. They were cheap enough and for only 2.5 € I could add processing including scanning so I decided to give it a try.
Processing and scanning was done at Karaköy Fotoğrafçı in Istanbul.
Because there were some issues with a few of the scans I had it rescanned by urbanfilmlab in Germany.

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Review, Samyang, Sony E-mount

Review: Samyang AF 18mm 2.8 FE – The affordable UWA lens

February 13, 2023 BastianK 10 Comments

Introduction

18 2.8 af fe samyang review a7rii a7rv a7riv 42mp 61mp contrast resolution sharpness bokeh — Samyang FE 18mm 2.8 AF on Sony A7rII

A small, lightweight and very affordable 18mm lens can be an interesting option for many photographers. It can extend the viewing angle compared to a midrange zoom significantly and if you only rarely delve into ultra wideangle photography it can also be a great option, as you will have less money sitting idle in your lens cabinet. The Samyang 18mm 2.8 AF wants to be exactly this lens, but the question remains, how high a toll the small size took on its optical performance. Let’s find out about that in this review!